LIMA Ė A Peruvian judge issued a national and international arrest warrant on Thursday for former President Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006) and his subsequent 18-month preliminary imprisonment for allegedly taking $20 million in bribes from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht.

Judge Richard Concepcion, head of the First Preparatory Investigation Court of the National Criminal Chamber, declared well-founded the petition for preventive detention requested by the anti-corruption prosecutor Hamilton Castro, who charged the former president with the alleged crimes of influence peddling and money laundering.

Toledo is currently outside Peru and apparently was in Paris last weekend, although his usual residence is in the United States, where he works as a researcher at Stanford University, California.

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